Chapter 324: Carbonization Treatment

When Zhou Xuqing and the others transported the first batch of timber back to the village, the old village secretary and his team had already finished cutting down fifty Chinese fir trees and were in the process of trimming the branches.

The brigade leader and the security team were standing guard on the outermost perimeter. Perhaps because of the wild boar rampage not long ago, even though the felling of the trees made quite a racket today, it surprisingly didn’t attract any large wild animals.

It wasn’t until they were nearly done that a foolish roe deer charged straight into their midst, as if offering itself up. It probably came to watch the commotion, only to end up becoming dinner.

The foolish roe deer was swiftly taken down by the brigade leader with a clean shot—quick and efficient.

When the old village secretary heard the news, he was overjoyed. Tonight’s dinner would be a feast!

With everyone working together, all the timber was soon processed. By the time Zhou Xuqing and his group arrived, the remaining wood could be transported back to the village in one go.

By around five in the afternoon, the villagers finally managed to haul all fifty fir trees back to the village.

“Everyone has worked hard today. Your brigade leader brought down a foolish roe deer—just in time to add something extra to dinner,” the old secretary clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.

The villagers of Zhoujiazhuang were quite excited upon hearing this—meat again!

Food is a fundamental need. After a long day of hard work, having something delicious to reward themselves with was an enjoyable experience.

The foolish roe deer had long been sent to the village canteen, where the cooks were already butchering it—nothing edible would be wasted.

Soon, the canteen was filled with the rich aroma of cooking meat. The villagers couldn’t help but swallow their saliva at the scent.

“Meat again—today’s a great day!” one villager exclaimed cheerfully.

Another chimed in, “That’s right. As long as there’s meat, the hard work is worth it.”

“Our village is lucky. You wouldn’t believe how miserable it is at my wife’s parents’ place.”

Meat? Forget it. They’d count themselves lucky just to have some coarse grains to eat. Word was that the autumn harvest grain reserves were almost gone. And it was still a long way to the New Year!

They wouldn’t get more grain until next summer’s harvest.

Such a long wait—it was agonizing.

“Exactly! That we can eat our fill, and even eat well, is all thanks to Yimin,” someone quickly redirected the praise to Zhou Yimin.

There’s a difference between being full and eating well.

The meals in Zhoujiazhuang could be considered among the best in the countryside nationwide. They had meat every few days—even urban folk couldn’t always say the same.

The brigade leader and the old village secretary exchanged a pleased look. Watching Zhoujiazhuang flourish like this, the two of them were deeply gratified.

They walked slowly toward the canteen in no rush, standing in sharp contrast to the eager villagers.

After a good night’s rest, the villagers were full of energy once more.

Today’s task was to turn the fir logs transported back yesterday into utility poles. From the reservoir all the way to the village, there needed to be a utility pole every fifty meters to support the stress of the power lines.

This was no small project. Each pole needed to be buried to a depth of one-sixth or one-tenth of its height, but never shallower than 1.5 meters. If it was for a transformer pole, the minimum depth was 2 meters.

The depth would depend on the pole’s material, height, load-bearing capacity, and local soil conditions. For poles under 15 meters, a one-sixth depth was standard, but never less than 1.5 meters.

If guy-wires were used to stabilize the poles, the depth could be slightly reduced, but in areas with soft soil, it had to be increased if there were no securing measures.

Zhou Yimin had gotten up early today too. In the future world he came from, utility poles were mostly made of concrete.

When he arrived at the reservoir, he saw the villagers already digging. A group with hoes and shovels were gathered around a pit, digging away. Soon they had a hole about one meter deep.

Once the hole was done, others began trying to set up a utility pole and planned to refill the soil afterward to finish installing the first pole.

Suddenly, Zhou Yimin called out to stop them. “Everyone, hold on.”

The crowd was a bit annoyed at first—it was frustrating to be interrupted while working by someone giving unsolicited advice. But when they saw it was Yimin, they immediately held back their complaints.

There were only a few people in the village whose words carried that kind of weight—Zhou Yimin and the old secretary among them.

The old secretary was puzzled and asked, “Yimin, is there something wrong?”

He knew Zhou Yimin was knowledgeable and experienced. If he spoke up, there had to be a reason.

“This pit isn’t deep enough. It needs to be at least 1.5 meters deep. That’s the proper depth,” Zhou Yimin said.

Hearing this, the villagers silently moved the pole aside and prepared to continue deepening the pit. After all, Zhou Yimin had spoken.

The old secretary had been about to say something, but he hadn’t expected the villagers to respond even faster than him. They acted before he could even speak, which pleased him greatly.

“Yimin, is there anything else we should watch out for?” the old secretary asked.

They had never done this kind of work before and weren’t familiar with it, so it was best to clarify everything. It would be a nightmare to redo things once the project was finished.

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Yimin said, “First, the portion that’s buried needs to be carbonized to extend the lifespan of the wood.”

The villagers listened intently like students, afraid they might miss a single word.

“Yimin, anything else?”

Zhou Yimin added, “When installing the poles, the tilt angle must be consistent, and the direction must be correct.”

The old secretary raised his voice and called out to the villagers nearby, “Did you all hear what Yimin said?”

“Heard it!” the villagers answered loudly.

Following Zhou Yimin’s instructions, they split into groups to speed up the work.

The old secretary then leaned in and whispered to Zhou Yimin, “Yimin, the poles are sorted, but what about the wires? That stuff’s not easy to get.”

Electric wires weren’t something ordinary people could easily acquire. Zhoujiazhuang didn’t have the means to obtain them and could only place their hopes on Zhou Yimin.

“Don’t worry, old secretary. Leave the wires to me. Before you get all the poles set up, I’ll have the wires delivered,” Zhou Yimin reassured him.

“I’ll go take some measurements in a bit to see exactly how much wire we need.” He had already planned to buy some from the system store in his mind and let the village chip in a bit to cover the cost.

With Zhou Yimin’s promise, the old secretary finally felt relieved. He had been worried that all their recent efforts might go to waste, and then he wouldn’t know how to explain it to the villagers.

(End of Chapter)